It dawned on me that, decades from now, when we get nostalgic about the 2000’s, it won’t be whatever songs were playing on the radio that will instantly transport us to that era. But these.

Part I - The Originals

1. “Bed Intruder” - Gregory Brothers feat. Anthony Dodgson

The Gregory Brothers were the redemption to auto-tune. 95 million views.

2. “Chocolate Rain” - Tay Zonday

This song is perhaps the symbol of the golden era user-generated content on Youtube, circa 2006, before Vevo and design changes that moved the focus away from communities and into corporate content. 74 million views.

3. “What What (In The Butt)” - Samwell

Part II - The Loopers

4. Nyan cat

Ah, the loopers. The internet is not complete without them. Nyan cat got over 50 million views.

5. “The Llama Song” - Burton Earny

After “Hampsterdance” in the late 90s, I think this was one of the earliest major loopers. Originally from the Albino Blacksheep website, I’m posting here a Youtube upload for your convenience.

6. “Ievan Polkka” - Loituma

Made popular by leekspin.com, this is actually part of a Finnish song performed by a folk local group. Here’s a link to a full performance (it’s quite good!), but the one we’ll remember most is this:

Part III - The Subversions

7. “Dragostea tin dei” - O-Zone

Sometimes one fan can make the fame of one song. In 2004 a guy posted a video of himself… oh boy, Wikipedia can describe it better than I ever could: …”wearing headphones and lipsyncing to the audio of the original O-Zone track whilst moving his head, shoulders and arms gesticulating to the music in an animated and earnest manner.”

And thus was born “Numa Numa“, the second most watched viral video of all time: over seven hundred million views.

9. “Tunak Tunak Tun” - Daler Mehndi

The song was originally released in 1998, but the video made waves through the internet during the 2000s. The first of many Indian music videos and snippets from Bollywood movies that amused the world:

10. “Never Gonna Give You Up” - Rick Astley

And finally, of course, the song that left a mark in two separate decades, and for very different reasons. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only:

Posted by hisham on Sunday, December 18, 2011 02:09:23 in en_US, Culture